July 16, 2002 // 7:13 a.m. // "Oh my heck!" The Neleh rant

Remember the latest Survivor? Remember the runner-up Neleh? Well, she's doing local TV. Here. In Utah.

Has she ever taken a communications class? No. Did she have any interest in TV before Survivor? By her own admission she didn't.

She bugs me. Maybe it's because she is perpetuating the stereotype that Utahn's are overly nice. Don't get me wrong. I love living in a state where if your car dies or you need spare change you're quick to get it, but Neleh is sugary sweet. Far too sweet.

Her "oh my heck"'s and "gosh darnit"'s are more than I can take sometimes. Like I say, she's sweet in that way that doesn't neccesarily feel fake, but is often associated with the dominant religion here. I encounter people like this on a daily basis. They are far too cooperative.

And in a related story, could someone tell me why Ogden is such a country kind of city? Out west in the Salt Lake valley, you have a lot of the country element due to rural and farming areas. But Ogden isn't much like this, yet every morning on the shuttle bus radio, all I hear is Toby Keith or Faith Hill. Sometimes if we're lucky, we get the easy listening station, and if we're extremely lucky, we get the campus station stuck in 1997, consisting of Matchbox 20's Yourself Or Someone Like You or Third Eye Blind's self -titled album.

To think, all of this was sparked by seeing Neleh wearing a very Utah girl outfit (for example, only skin shown being below the elbow) with a 'cow girl' belt buckle and tons of "gosh darnit"'s and a bubbly attitude.

(sigh) I so need even a temporary change. What are the people like in Seattle or Portland?

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